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A doubter of the voice of the speaker in doubt of faith

שו”תA doubter of the voice of the speaker in doubt of faith
asked 1 year ago

Hi Miki.
Further to your opinion that one should include contentment with faith in Judaism as a key consideration in deciding whether to be stricter or more lenient, I would like to ask further and go further, whether in the above situation of doubt one should also permit rabbinical prohibitions due to the rule of ‘the rabbinical doubt is the only one’?
Thank you and have a good week and month.


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0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 1 year ago
You could also ask about a doubt in the Torah that should be lenient because it is always a valid doubt. It is unlikely for several reasons. Here are two. First, it is not a reasonable doubt and this rule applies only to reasonable doubt. Second, it is an internal halakhic rule and this doubt is about whether to be bound by halakhic law at all.

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goorsakbardari replied 1 year ago

Thanks for the answer, and still: 1. I ask if I do indeed believe that this is at least a reasonable doubt.
2. So what, I claim that even according to the logic of the halakha there is no reason to obligate me, the rule in question is my opinion and logical – the obligation of a rabbi is weak and nullified by a degree of doubt, so why wouldn't it apply here too?

מיכי Staff replied 1 year ago

This doubt is on your personal level and not that of the halakhah. Therefore, you are the one who must decide whether such a doubt is enough to establish a commitment to the system or not. If you decide not to – then of course you will absolve yourself. But if you are committed, then the rules of the system are that in the case of doubt among the rabbis, one should be lenient and not necessarily among the rabbis. As a rule, this rule is only for doubts within the system. After all, the halakhah itself is supposed to take into account the fact that the one who observes the halakhah is not certain (because there is no certainty in anything), and yet it said that there are rabbinical laws and they are binding and that only in the case of doubt are they lenient. And that in the case of doubt from the Torah, they are stricter and only in the case of doubt are they lenient.
I also did not claim that I would not observe the halakhic instruction because that is what the halakhic instruction tells me to do because I am in doubt. This is my decision and not a halakhic instruction.
In short, this is just unnecessary chatter.

goorsakbardari replied 1 year ago

I think I was misunderstood.
I'm not talking about uncertainty like everything else in life (the senses, etc.), but about a much more critical level, let's say: 50 – 50, the rationale behind the halakhah is that it is not binding in situations of doubt – the force of the obligation is weak and does not hold true with certainty, and in any case the halakhah also admits that if I am in a state of doubt I am not obligated.

מיכי Staff replied 1 year ago

You understood well and I answered.

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